


the trickster's web

by Charrise



Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: F/M, I do not ship Locke and Jude, What if locke had lived during the QON?, beta reader wanted, one sided obssession for Locke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24603517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charrise/pseuds/Charrise
Summary: Taryn had killed Locke because of his cruelty towards her, but what if she didn't? What if Locke had survived in the QON?Jude had come ready to impersonate her twin ready to gain entrance to Elfhame, ready to face her sister's trial for Locke's execution, only to be surprised to find Locke. Locke looks at her with a look that makes her shrink back, but there's no turning back now.Locke who expected revenge now has a new web to play with a new story to unravel as his obsession gets the best of him,Cardan who now tries to win the heart of the woman he loves and must outsmart his trickster friend as well as a crafty general...
Relationships: Jude Duarte/Cardan Greenbriar, Jude Duarte/Locke
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

Locke’s POV:  
Hearing of my wife’s return I smiled. It wasn’t a kind smile. I wasn’t feeling particularly kind right now, not after what she tried to do to me. And after I kept my word and married her! I mean so what if she was pregnant, a child was boring, and I myself didn’t want to take care of a half-human brat or any brat for that matter. We could have given the child away to any lower class fay to take care of and showed it off when we wanted to cause a stir or basically just show it off as many faeries did. But for some reason Taryn wanted me to raise the child and change. Me, change! For a human? One that didn’t have the fire I longed for? Sure she was interesting enough, but the fire I longed for wasn’t there. She was a bit dull, to be honest. And so when I told her the truth, that all the story seemed to have left her. Tears dull human tears had seemed to drip down her cheeks. She seemed to have forgotten the fact that Fay doesn’t love the way humans do.  
I sighed. And was about to keep talking, about how boring and dull she was, and that the child if it was worth an interest or to, I’d pay attention but not that much because they have to be interesting to keep my attention. And the next thing I knew I felt a sharp pain in my throat as blood escaped. The ingrate actually tried to kill. Fortunately for me, the little fool wasn’t so smart, she tried to dump my body to the sea.  
The sea of all places. Luckily I was still conscious when Nicassia found me, and the soothing valve of the fay healed me. And now was the time of the little traitor’s trial. She probably thought to wear a charm against glamors so that she could lie. Well, I couldn’t wait to see the shock in her eyes when she sees me of all people, alive and well. I’m tempted to wait for the trial to show myself and let her face fall when she realizes there’s no way she can lie. Or let her lie and then appear as the horror then ebbs on her face when she realizes the lie unravel. I giggle maniacally at the thought, the servant girl a disgusting human looks at me with alarm. I give her a disinterested look. She probably was pretty for human standards, but nothing like Nicassia or Jude and Taryn for that matter. It seemed plain and unlovely, the thing that caught about Jude and Taryn is they had a loveliness equal to that of the faries. This was rare for humans but not an impossibility it was actually a reason the fay fell for humans because some of them were as beautiful as the faries. Or had the face like the fay despite being mortal but not this one. Valerian might have found them plain, for their mortality but many a fay would admit their beauty but not this dull servant girl. She wasn’t a beauty compared to the fay. Though probably humans she was considered a beauty but not a rare one. Her blue eyes and pale white skin, the color of ivory full lips, and the scared look were so boring and dull to me I waved her away and saw an Attractive Fay servant.  
There mushroomy skin and powdered wings one bowed to me but the fear in his eyes was evident I was hefty with power as the servant seemed to be terrified, of me. “She’s waiting in your room, my lord.”  
I nodded trying to give a bored look as if this was completely unimportant to me, but on the inside, I felt a storm of emotions from fury, fear, revenge, and anxiety thundering within me. And what made me angry was the emotions of fury and anxiety how dare a human make me feel like this! No, I decided I’d see the wench, just to make her feel the anxiety and fear as we ride to her trial. I won’t comfort her, I’ll make her feel this helplessness the helplessness she’s making me of all people feel. A faerie! When she is only a mortal. I clenched and unclenched my jaw as I tried to relax, but the fury in my heart remained, I was so angry. There was nothing that would make me happier than to make Taryn beg for mercy for what’s she making me feel, when’s she’s only a mortal. With that thought in mind, I walked like a vulture to our rooms soon to be my rooms. And stopped.  
This was not Taryn. She was dressed like Taryn, had a dumbfounded expression as if she couldn’t believe I was alive. Had the same red-brown hair the color of willow trees, the same walnut-colored eyes, and pale skin. And an identical face with the same heart shape and delicate features. The same beauty that made her seem like she was a faerie. She was even wearing those ridiculous earrings that increased her beauty. But this wasn’t Taryn. And there was only one person that I knew off that was so similar to Taryn that she could pass off as her. A wicked smile left my lips and this imposter flinched. Worry was in her eyes, and I could see that she was beginning to wonder had she been tricked.  
Oh my sweet, sweet Jude, far from it I’m guessing since my sweet gullible wife thought she killed me. But I have to admit this turned out better than I had hoped. I simply thought Taryn would wear a charm, But I’d never imagined she’d have to gall to do something like this. Considering what she did to Jude in the past, her betrayals didn’t she know Jude had every reason and all that pent up frustration to hurt her? The silly little fool probably thought that them being Family meant Jude would never hurt her. And Jude oh my sweet, delicious Jude, she had every reason to reject. Gods I thought she would reject Taryn, considering the fact that Taryn impersonated her, and let me play with her feelings. I guess the sisterly bond was that strong after all. I felt a twinge of disappointment thinking my little Jude was that boring, only for a thought to appear in my mind, I studied her to see if there was truth to that thought, and I couldn’t help but smile.  
Yes, this would do. She was more fairy than she admitted. She accepted to aid the treacherous sister just to be accepted at Faerie again. Just for one more chance to gain entrance at Elfhame. I licked my lips with anticipation and unanswered lust. She stepped back in horror, as my gaze seemed to travel at her body. Her mortal hips and lips and breast, that I longed to touch. That I’d fantasize about using her sister to help make those fantasies more realistic. They would be mine soon. Oh, Jude, how I fantasized about you to the point of frustration, it doesn’t take long to guess how I got your silly older sister pregnant. And even that wasn’t enough as I’d relieve myself just thinking about you. Yes, that day when I saw your bare skin naked to us except for those dratted garments. How I longed to see you naked and writhing underneath me then, and how I long to see it now. How I long to make you crawl and humiliate you, and make you mine and mine alone. That day during the hunt of my bachelor party had I caught you I would have glamoured you to be my slave to my pleasure at my whim. Alas you were tougher than that and my desire for you only grew, I thought to hand you over to the undersea would break you but it didn’t. You were strong, and that spirit of yours only makes me want you more. But you kept rejecting me and rejecting me. To the point, It was driving me mad. The rejection was absolute torture of the mind and heart. You were cold, polite only because you had to be-only because we were to be family-but I liked it when you were flushed and frustrated that let my imagination wander to other scenarios, one of which I took you as my own. And now I would have the opportunity to do just that. After all my wife Taryn would do whatever I wanted. Each and every whim and that’s who you are now. Or at least who you pretend to be.  
I come to you as you take a step back, horror and distrust clear in your eyes. I can’t help but smile. Oh, what a fun game this will be! I pull you in close and stroke your sides. You freeze and I can feel you tense as you force yourself not to squirm out of my grasp lest the farce is revealed. I bury my face in your neck and take in your scent. You don’t hug me but that’s fine soon, you’ll be begging for me. I have to thank my wife for giving me this opportunity if she hadn’t tried to kill me I wouldn’t have the opportunity to make Jude mine. But first, we must get this pesky trial out of the way...


	2. Cardan’s POV part 1

“You are going to punish her for what she almost did to Locke right?” Nicasia asked, her eyes the color of the sea stared at me, asking the same thing. No, that was wrong. They weren’t asking, they were pleading for me to punish Taryn. But why? Why was she so intent on the possibility of me punishing Taryn? I knew she and Locke were close, but I didn’t think they were close enough for her to wish Taryn’s death. “I mean, even if she is your queen’s sister.” Her words were particularly bitter as she said the word queen, carefully not stating my wife’s name. It then latched on to me, why she wanted Taryn punished. 

It wasn’t Taryn she wanted to see punished. No, of course not, Nicassia, though she looked down on Taryn for her mortality didn’t loathe her with the same loathing as she did her sister. My wife, my queen, my love. The one who wouldn’t come home. The one who was still so angry with me, that she must have hated me when I would do anything just for a kind word from her lips.

Yet she won’t come home. I even wrote a letter to her stating she wasn’t exiled and begged her to return, she didn’t seem to care. didn’t seem to want to come home, had she met a mortal man who… My tail flinched and I felt a burning in my chest, a fit of anger and rage that suddenly made murder a possibility for me. If my wife found a mortal lover I swear to… but then I guess she must be so angry at her exile that she probably fell into the arms of the first mortal who was kind to her. No, that wasn’t Jude, was it? I knew she was angry and hurt over her exile. My queen was humiliated in front of the whole court who laughed at her when she stated she was the queen of Faerie. The laughter and jest, and the names they still call her in court. But What I wouldn’t give for her to return to me. In one piece, safe and sound. But I knew the rage in her when I denied it with my silence as I banished her. But she should have gotten my wording by now, She was banished until pardoned by the crown. By the king or queen of faerie which she now was. So why wasn’t she returning to me? ‘Maybe she really found a mortal lover…’ A dark thought of mine stated. ‘No, Jude wouldn’t’ I kept arguing to myself. She wouldn’t do that. ‘Unless she’s angry enough…’ That silenced my arguments. I knew that voice was right if Jude was angry enough, she in herself was completely unpredictable. She could do anything, was capable of anything, even bedding the first mortal who was kind to her. Explicit images of a mortal holding her, kissing her, touching her, being one with her… Filled my head and dark thoughts of murder and mutilation of that unknown mortal begin to pervade me. Jude. Jude, my Jude was capable of all that and she was doing it with someone else and it was all my fault. As soon as this stupid trial was over, even if she was going to scream at me, I swore to myself I won’t do this anymore. I’ll go to the mortal world if I have to and bring her back. I’ll plead. I’ll beg. I’ll humiliate myself. Just for the chance she’d forgive me, just for even hope, she’d give me a second chance. Better she breaks my heart than be away from me and be in the arms of another.

It was then I felt something. The earth seemed to tingle, as I felt it. Her footsteps. She was home. My wife was home. She came back. There was no mistaking this tingling, this pull I felt. And I stood up. The excitement must have been in my eyes, for the courtiers looked at me taken aback but said nothing. I didn’t pay them much mind, my wife was home, that was all that mattered. I was ready to run to where I felt that pull, I even ignored Nicassia’s cries for me ready to meet Jude. To hold her, to apologize and to beg her to never leave again. Someone pulled me by the arm. I turned, eyes narrowed giving an annoyed look. A green-skinned goblin looked at me, a knowing look in his eyes, the roach. “Look I know you’re excited that she’s back. I am too but you have to be careful.” For a moment I didn’t know who he was talking about, then I did. I stared at him dumbly then. “You felt her didn’t you?” I nodded. “Then I guess she really did become the queen of faerie.” It was a statement, not a question. Again I nodded. “You married her, didn’t you?” There, it was again, that knowing look. “And it wasn’t political, it was a love match.” Another nod. He sighed. “Did she know?” “I doubt she did, she probably thought it was a political marriage, one where we stayed married until we gave the throne to oak.” The roach just looks at me.” “What are the conditions for the marriage?” I hesitated before telling him. “That we stay married until we both wish otherwise and until we give the crown to someone else.” The roach just looked at me for a moment. Then guffawed into a fit of laughter. “So basically you tricked her into staying married to you for all eternity!” The roach tried to say a few words, bursting into another fit of laughter instead but was able to sputter “Because I doubt you’d ever want to stop being married to her.” I nodded. “I know I’ll forever love her. I even promised her in my letter that my heart will always be hers. I’ll always love her. I know that now.” The roach looked at me for a moment and stopped laughing. “Mortals have this belief of one true love, do you know that?” I looked at him not knowing where he was going with this. “They have this concept of soulmates, where one soul is connected to another, that they will always love each other through each lifetime, will always love each other forever.”Blinking at him realization hit where he was going with this, hope-filled me, then maybe I was… “But sometimes there is a thing where one has another as a soulmate but their soulmate’s soulmate is not them.” I looked at him accusingly. “Just don’t get your hopes up. Jude is as beautiful as a faerie, among mortals that beauty is rare.” instantly, I knew where he was going with this. “She came back. “ “It may be to renounce your vows, one way or another. She may have found someone else.” I was silent for a moment as the roach stated those words. Those hateful, hateful words I did not want to hear. my body went rigid. “Carden…” “Don’t you ever accuse your queen of infidelity ever again.” The words were harsher than I intended, but my anger was so great that if he wasn’t my friend and on top of that Jude’s friend I knew he would lose his head. “Carden.” I gave him a look. Something in my eyes must have given away what I was truly feeling, for the roach gave me a look of pity. A look of such great pity that I felt ashamed of what I said to him. “Jude wouldn’t do that,” I mumbled again. “You know she’s capable of anything when you humiliate her to the level you did.” I’m silent for a moment unable to deny his words.

“She’s back.” I weakly say instead. The roach says nothing. And I’m left mulling over his words. The roach was right of course, there was always the possibility of her finding a lover. Many nights had I been tempted to find solace in another’s arms.eventually actually doing so. Finding solace in the arms of Nicassia and countless others. But what good would that do? Each and every night I’d still dream of what could have been, Of Jude and the family we could have had. Each night I’d dream of a certain mortal’s warm skin , of her lips upon mine. And each night she tortures me. No matter whose arms I was in. Even confessing my feelings to Nicassia did not make them go away. No, all it did was make Nicassia loathe Jude more. 

Nothing I did would make my feelings for Jude go away. But could the same be said for her?

She could have found solace in another, that was what tortured me. That was the thought that tortured my waking moments as sure as her memory tortured my sleep. If she was here to renounce our vow and tell me she now loved another, I wished she’d get it over with. But yet she still did not come. I waited hours for her appearance, preening, deciding what clothes I should wear, preparing myself on what I should tell her ( of course that was hopeless. I knew the moment we lay eyes on each other my words would be lost and all I’d want to do was take her in my arms.) But still, she did not come. I begin to worry that I had imagined the feeling of her arrival.But no, I shook my head realizing the absurdity of those words. I still felt it, still felt the presence, the tingling the pull towards what I knew isn’t just love but was the land itself pulling me towards her. I couldn’t help but smile, the land had chosen her after all. Perhaps her blood would make things grow, she was part of the land after all. Not just of the mortal land but part of Elfhame as well. I laughed perhaps the land choosing her as its queen and its personification was to show the bonding of faeries and mortals. I knew she’d never age now, so sending her to the mortal world no matter how long she stayed didn’t matter, she’d still look the same. She had changed whether she knew it or not. She was now something that was part fay and part mortal. Not like Vivian and the other half-fae, but something more special, more elemental, and she didn’t know it yet. No, when she faced that laughter and humiliation, her powers had not yet shown. I knew she didn’t know it yet. if she did she’d have made another island grow, an island that would have shocked all of the faerie even I who had married her and expected it. I felt her presence come closer and closer, the land’s pull was the same but it was shouting softer now that she was coming closer, when she was far it would shout louder as it did when she was in the mortal world. I stiffened as my mouth formed into a grin. My bride, my queen, my love. Jude was coming. mayhaps she came for her sister’s testimony? very well. I’ll dress the part, we’ll play the game. If that’s what it takes to keep her in my life I’ll gladly play. Better than to lose her to someone else. Good opportunity as well as to let her know of our powers, of what we could become together. I chose an outfit of black midnight satin, black tights painted my cheeks in gold and put on the blood crown. Ready to meet my queen after the trial.


End file.
